Referrals Top Elder Care Marketing Methods

Friday, April 16th, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow

Traditional advertising vehicles, like television, radio and newspaper ads, are viewed as the least effective marketing methods by elder care marketing professionals, according to the Elder Care Marketing IndustryReport. The report, a comprehensive view of the elder care marketing industry based on a survey of 166 industry professionals, was released by Ryan Malone in March.

According to the report, referrals and affiliates programs top the list of the most effective marketing vehicles, demonstrating a key shift from traditional offline marketing to online lead generation methods. Online marketing offers the ability to track leads, and therefore return on investment, much more effectively than traditional advertising. Search engine optimization, informational seminars, social media and press releases were also included in the top five.

Most companies aren't measuring lead generation

Surprisingly, nearly one quarter of respondents said they were not measuring the effectiveness of their lead generation activities at all. We had the pleasure of speaking with Ryan Malone directly, and he felt that this fact was one of the key findings from this research. The other? That most companies recognize the value of social media and have incorporated it into their marketing activities, yet many don't really know how to utilize it efficiently to generate referrals.

It's so much easier to track online marketing activites, and it's all the more reason to transition more of your marketing budget to online lead generation. 20% of your marketing activities are bringing in 80% of your leads. Why not identify that 20% and allocate your budget accordingly?